This is a set of two improv-style activites that encourage participants to participate in learning about living and nonliving things. Learners will get to know each other through an icebreaker activity and state their ideas and previous experience...(View More) with living versus nonliving things. This will help prepare them to explore how scientists define and look for life in worlds beyond our own. It also includes specific tips for effectively engaging girls in STEM. This is the icebreaker activity in Explore: Life on Mars? that was developed specifically for use in libraries.(View Less)

This is an activity about the requirements of life. Learners will explore what living things need to survive and thrive by creating and caring for a garden plot (outdoors where appropriate) or a container garden (indoors) at the program facility....(View More) The garden will be used to beautify the facility with plant life with many planting and landscaping options provided. Children will consider the requirements of living things, compare the surface conditions on Mars to those found on Earth, view images/video of a NASA Astrobiology Institute "garden" where astrobiologists are studying life under extreme conditions, and consider the similarities and differences in the type of life that would be possible on Mars as compared to their garden on Earth. It also includes specific tips for effectively engaging girls in STEM. This is activity 3 in Explore: Life on Mars? that was developed specifically for use in libraries.(View Less)

This is a set of three activities about how scientists study other worlds. Learners will explore and compare the features of Mars and Earth, discuss what the features suggest about the history of Mars, and create a model to help them understand how...(View More) scientists view other worlds. The activities help to show why scientists are interested in exploring Mars for evidence of past life, and address the question: "Why are we searching for life on Mars?" It also includes specific tips within each activity for effectively engaging girls in STEM. This is activity 4 in Explore: Life on Mars? that was developed specifically for use in libraries.(View Less)

In this lesson, a correlation between chlorophyll, sea surface temperature, and sunlight will be derived from NASA satellite data. Students will download a year’s worth of data on each of these variables for the Gulf of Maine. Data will be...(View More) imported and displayed as both a line plot and an Excel graph. Chlorophyll density, which corresponds to the density of photosynthetic phytoplankton, will be analyzed and compared/related to sunlight and sea surface temperature data. This lesson uses student- and citizen science-friendly microsets of authentic NASA Earth system science data from the MY NASA DATA project. It also includes related links, extensions, an online glossary and a list of related AP Environmental Science topics.(View Less)

This is a lesson about using analogues to look for life on other planets. Learners will use the results of previous lessons to write a scientific proposal to explore another planet or moon in our solar system for signs of life. This proposal should...(View More) predict the types of energy and nutrients available to sustain life and describe equipment and instruments necessary for exploration and characterization of the target environment. This is activity 4, the capstone activity, in Exploring Deep-Subsurface Life. Earth Analogues for Possible Life on Mars: Lessons and Activities.(View Less)

This activity is related to the discovery of water ice on Mars. Learners are provided with a global map showing where the presumed water ice is located and use it as context for analyzing and interpreting images taken with the Thermal Emission...(View More) Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. They will use the water ice maps to interpret the geology of the regions on Mars and evaluate the prospects for exploring these regions in the future. A teacher guide and a student guide are available. This is an extension of the "Mars Image Analysis Activity" and is activity 5 of 5 in Buried Water Ice on Mars.(View Less)

This is an activity about the discovery of water ice on Mars and involves the use of remote sensing data. Through a Socratic dialogue, learners will analyze three different kinds of data collected by Mars spacecraft to investigate the composition...(View More) and distribution of ices at the high latitude regions of Mars. An extension activity is available in which students use an online simulation illustrating how gamma rays can be used to determine the composition of the Martian surface. This is activity 2 of 5 in Buried Water Ice on Mars.(View Less)

This is an activity about the correlation between annual precipitation and plant productivity in different Earth biomes. Learners consider water evaporation, solubility and abundance relative to life on Earth and relative to finding evidence for...(View More) life on Mars. An extension activity investigates the connection between liquid water, biomes and plant productivity on Earth. This is the 1st of 5 activities in Buried Water Ice on Mars.(View Less)

This is an activity about the discovery of water ice on Mars. Learners will create physical models using Earth samples to answer the question, "is it more likely that high altitude regions of Mars are composed of icy dirt (with ice filling the pore...(View More) space of soils) or dirty ice (with dust sprinkled through a mostly icy surface)?" Included are teacher and student guides and a powerpoint with gamma ray spectrophotometric imagery of the North Arctic of Mars. This is the 3rd of 5 activities in Buried Water Ice on Mars.(View Less)

Students will be introduced to different species of macroinvertebrates. They will hypothesize why each insect looks the way it does. Then students will make observations of macroinvertebrates in an aquarium in their classroom. For an optional...(View More) extension, teachers can take students to a local stream or pond to conduct field observations. Materials needed include sand, water, aquatics plants and insects; estimated materials cost does not include aquarium. This is the 3rd of 3 sets of learning activities that are companion activities to the Elementary GLOBE children's book, Discoveries at Willow Creek. Includes a teacher implementation guide.(View Less)